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Thursday, November 21, 2013

The Budget 2014 – With NO opposition members in the house!

This is not a
case of sour grapes, but an unprecedented show of unity amongst those opposed
to the behavior, actions and policy of this Govt. as the budget is more of a
document of a person’s imagination, than of fact.

One the main
issues that have not been resolved satisfactorily is that the appropriation
bill is in fact illegal in the first place and therefore the budget as
presented DOES NOT represent any legitimacy and therefore credibility. It is
further reinforced by the fact that the Govt. engages in the practice of
deciding what to allocate by the treasury as the year progresses, so that
whatever figures are actually stated in the budget are just figmants of
someone’s imagination.

If just the past
year is anything to gauge by, many Ministries were not even given half the
funds allocated by the budget of the previous year!!! So how can one operate
when one does NOT know how much the treasury will release to them!

It is therefore
surprising that the Govt. MP’s will actually turn up to listen to this figment
of the President and his Treasury Secretary’s imagination. They only come
because if they did not there will be hell to play and a potential loss of
position, and even a demotion to the Delft. In what country does the President
hog the limelight on Budget Day when it is the traditional ambit of the Finance
Minister. Whilst I agree that the President is technically the Finance Minister,
it is impossible with his micromanagement of the administration of Govt. to do justice
to this very arduous and important position that cannot be left to the Treasury
Secretary to explain the dots and crosses to one who knows very little of that subject.

The fact that no
one publicly questions any of these matters, point to the power and threats wielded
by the state to anyone who wishes to oppose any act of the Govt. I appeal to people
with an ounce of sense in them to come out and question one or all of these obvious
anachronisms so that people with common sense are able to understand reality from
the chaff blown at them. It is time that the lie is exposed and the direction that
SL is taking of inordinate risks, leaving the whole economy exposed to a potential
blow out, so that corrective action can be taken to reduce wastage, corruption and
nepotism that has resulted in so much of the country been sold to the highest bidder
or at least mortgaged.

Let us begin with
the appointment of a finance minister who can focus his attention on the threats
and propose corrective action, that a powerful Govt. can implement.